This week Hank Azaria, the Jewish actor who voiced Apu Nahasapeemapetilon for 29 seasons of “The Simpsons” announced that he may step away from the role. But what’s the problem with Apu? What’s the problem with the animated character Apu, a thickly-accented, literally cartoonish convenience store-owner, being one of the only South-Asian characters on American…
Brandeis University fired head basketball coach Brian Meehan last week, citing multiple complaints about racial discrimination from players dating back years. Now new reports say the complaints date back five years — and he also allegedly made anti-Semitic remarks to a student manager on the team, Deadspin reported. The former student manager, Phil Keisman, told…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israel Justice Ministry official told Israeli media that the government is considering taking criminal action against Sephardic chief rabbi for likening a black child born to white parents to a “monkey” in explaining a point of ritual. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef made the comparison earlier this month during a Saturday evening lecture,…
Following the conversation on social media about anti-Semitism, Jeremy Corbyn and the U.K. Labour Party, I wondered why it was that some people continue to have trouble seeing antisemitism as racism. Here are some of my thoughts as to why that might be so. Jews are perceived by some as powerful. Racism systematically oppresses the…
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis of the UK has rebuked his Israeli Sephardic counterpart for referring to black people as “monkeys,” the Jewish Chronicle reported. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, a globally recognied leader of Sephardic Jews in Israel, made the racist comment this week during a sermon about saying a blessing when one sees an “unusual” person….
The Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel called black people “monkeys” during his weekly sermon on Saturday evening. Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef was addressing Jewish legal aspects of the blessing on seeing fruit trees blossoming, and whether one should bless one tree or at least two. In that context, he mentioned a blessing uttered upon seeing an…
National Geographic has, since it was founded in 1888, introduced people across the world to cultures different than their own. And, in doing so, it has been racist. Thus writes Susan Goldberg, editor in chief of National Geographic, in an editorial introducing the magazine’s April issue, which is themed around race. “It hurts to share…
At a recent dinner party, a fervent argument broke out over the way one chooses romantic partners. Penny, an old friend of my partner Ellen, invited us to meet her new husband; she is Jewish, he is not. They had met at a mutual friend’s party. Ellen and I, I told them, had met on…
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